Robert Evans
Lecturer in Law
Rob heads the Capital Markets group at Locke Lord LLP, an AMLAW 100 Firm. He began his focus on securities law practice in the Corporate Group at Hale and Dorr in Boston (now part of Wilmer Hale) and accelerated his progress by joining the Corporate Finance Group at Shearman & Sterling LLP in New York a few years later.
While at S&S, he represented companies and investment banks, principally working on offerings of securities, such as IPOs, convertible bonds, preferred stock, high yield and investment grade debt securities and structured notes. As one of the first global law firms, S&S was actively involved in securities offerings by European, Latin American and other international companies, giving Rob a strong background in cross-border work.
As something of a deal junky and securities law specialist, he shifted his practice to mostly represent investment banks acting as underwriters in public offerings and a similar role in Rule 144A/Reg S offerings. As a result, he often consulted with in-house lawyers at major investment banks on risk management, securities law compliance and governance matters. And that led to his teaching Ethics for In-house Lawyers at investment banks together with (former Penn Carey Law School Dean) Bob Mundheim who was head of the ABA’s Standing Committee on Ethics and Professional Responsibility and Of Counsel at S&S.
In 2017, Rob left S&S to join the US Securities & Exchange Commission in the Division of Corporation Finance, serving first as Deputy Director and then as the Chief of the Office of International Corporate Finance.
In 2019, Rob joined Locke Lord and broadened his practice to include representing companies as issuers, corporate governance and ESG.
Rob is a member of the American Law Institute and the TriBar Opinion Committee, co-head of the Capital Markets/Public Securities Affinity Group of the WGLO (working group on legal opinions), Chair of the ABA Subcommittee on Securities Law Opinions and a member of the American College of Governance Counsel. As an adjunct, he has taught Ethics for Corporate and Securities Lawyers and Advanced Fundamentals for Corporate Lawyers.